SAMUEL GOMPERS, Editor By SAMUEL GOMPERS, President, American Federation of Labor. Labor Organizations Must Not be Outlawed-The Supreme Court's Copyright by the American Federation of Labor. All rights reserved. DEMAND THE UNION LABEL. GRION MATE IMATED Vol. XV. DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS AND VOICING THE DEMANDS OF THE TRADE UNION MOVEMENT SUPREME COURT DECISION IN THE HATTERS' CASE AFFECTS ALL ORGANIZED LABOR-A SYMPOSIUM GIVING OPINION AND COMMENT BY MEN OF AFFAIRS. [Since the Supreme Court of the United States rendered the decision in the Hatters' case a large number of letters have reached us commenting thereon. Believing that these expressions of opinions largely represent the views of men active in the affairs of the labor organizations and public life and because of the general interest to all, we concluded to make excerpts from these letters and publish as many and as much of them as our space permits.-EDITOR.] John B. Lennon. Treasurer, American Federation of Labor. I am in receipt of what is, I apprehend, a fairly accurate copy of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Loewe & Co., hat manufacturers, of Danbury, Conn., against the United Hatters of North America. The Supreme Court holds that the interstate commerce law applies in this instance, and that the hatters are liable for damages alleged to have been suffered by this firm because of the boycott placed on the firm by the hatters' organization, when the said firm refused to grant union conditions. I am not a lawyer and therefore can not speak as to the technicalities of the law. I am, however, a citizen of the United States, and one who is not unfamiliar with our constitution and with what we have believed for a hundred years past were the fundamental principles upon which our government was founded. It appears to me that this decision of the Supreme Court overthrows absolutely the right of the individual citizen to purchase commodities of whom he chooses, or to refuse to purchase commodities of those that he does not desire to patronize, and having gone this far, it would not be a surprise if the same court would decide before long that the wageworkers must work for those that desire to hire them, whether they desire to sell them their services or not. The same principle is involved in both cases. I maintain that I have the right to buy any hats I please, and that I have an equal right to refuse to buy any hats I please. The wording in the peal to them as well. The wording in the decision which refers to coercion is based upon that which. absolutely does not exist. I have been an officer of the Federation for 17 years, and the chief executive officer of the international union of my own craft for more than 20 years, and there has never been a scintilla of coercion on the part of any of the organizations of which I have any knowledge, to compel any one, or attempt to compel any one, to give his trade to any particular firm, or to withhold it. The matter of certain firms refusing to recognize the unions of their employes has been published as a fact for the information of the public. Those who desired to do so declined to patronize such firms, and those who did not desire to do so went on and patronized the firms just as they had before. What is to be the outcome of these decisions? I can only give my views, and those but briefly. Unless the wage-workers, the trade unions, are given equity and justice, and that is all we ask, I am inclined to believe that one result will ensue and that in the near future-that will make somebody sit up and take cognizance of the interests of the wage-workers. There will be a division in this country on industrial political lines, exactly as there is at the present time in Germany and England. If that is what the Supreme Court is driving at its decisions are bringing it about more rapidly than anything that any one else can do. If the wage-workers in this country become thoroughly convinced that there is no policy to pursue except that of independent politics, they will pursue it with a vim and determination and effectiveness that has never been dreamed of by the workers of any country in the world. I trust that the legislation that the Federation has asked from Congress concerning injunctions and other important matters, may be enacted before the adjourn ment of the present Congress, in order that the organized workers of the country may soon receive at the hands of the courts and the officials of our country that justice to which we are entitled. Henry W. Blair. Ex-United States Senator. In regard to the decision of the Supreme Court, in the case of Loewe vs. united hatters, I should like to say a word, though I can hardly claim the honor of activity in the labor movement. A unanimous opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States, which is the supreme law of the land, will of course command the respectful obedience of the great laboring class, which is the great producing, population of the country, and is therefore the country itself. But public opinion through the ballotbox will find redress for every wrong. I should say that the existing situation requires the most careful deliberation on the part of the responsible leaders of the laboring classes of the country, as a condition A false step, precedent to decisive action. or even an inadvertent or careless step may lead to consequences difficult to repair. Why is it not the proper occasion to initiate a general national and state movement to secure laws making boycotting and discriminations by employers against workers crimes, with actions for personal damages to individuals injured? Combinations against trade must certainly, in principle, include combinations against the producers of the subject-matter of traffic; and if there is to be no right to combine to boycott, there should be no right to combine to injure the laboring man by depriving him of the opportunity to labor as a penalty for the exercise of that freedom of action which is the distinction between the freeman and the slave. J. A. Cable. Secretary, Coopers' International Union. The decision of the United States Supreme Court in the case of Loewe vs. The United Hatters of North America, which virtually pronounces organized labor a trust, is the hardest blow yet dealt to the organized workers' movement for better conditions. I can scarcely conceive what mode of reasoning could have prompted this mightiest of courts to arrive at such a preposterous conclusion. That a labor union |